Mouth Calling Whitetails?

[wildernessmaster]

I made the decision this year to reduce my gear going in. I have blown a few dandies of game (I am pretty sure) with the excess noise all of the "bells and whistles" of gear make when moving in the woods. If I can get down to a Comanche gear set (bow, knife and moccasins ) then I will!

All that said, one of the things I find as an noise producer are the calls. You have to have them at a location you can quickly and easily get to (in other words you can't have them shoved down in your pack). They also tend to have some hard (metal, plastic...) parts that can "ting"/"clink"/"ping" off something else and make noise.

I decided to start mouth calling every game I want to hunt. As I have looked into deer you have grunt tubes, bleets, snorts, whistles, and rattles (have never had any luck with rattling). Are there mouth calls (like turkey mouth calls) that can reproduce some/most/all of these (sans rattle)?

 

[Btaylor]

I voice grunt and snort wheeze more than I use a store bought call. If you carry horns for rattling tie them on your pull up cord and leave them on the ground. If you need to rattle, just lift them up with the cord so they bump together. Its a very effective rattling technique.

 

[brodie1978]

I've never seen a turkey type whitetail mouth call. grunts, snort wheeze easy to replicate using your mouth.

 

[wildernessmaster]

I voice grunt and snort wheeze more than I use a store bought call. If you carry horns for rattling tie them on your pull up cord and leave them on the ground. If you need to rattle, just lift them up with the cord so they bump together. Its a very effective rattling technique.

Do you have an resources to learn how to voice grunt?

 

[WCB]

nothing for whitetails I am familiar with....I do use a flextone grunt tube and you just press in different spots to make different sounds (deep grunt, high grunt, doe bleats, fawn, etc.) it is rubber and is dead silent.

i've done the voice thing for in close say 100 yards and in and had good luck...but for throwing a grunt or bleat out there a long ways or in the wind a tube is the way to go.

 

[coyotecreek]

I love rattling. I’ve had more success with rattling than any other type of calls. I do blind rattling if I don’t see any deer. I try to hit the horns as hard and loud as I can for 10-20 seconds then wait. Then rattle again, then wait 10-15 minutes. Works best on the ground when you can stomp your feet and rustle leaves.
If you see a deer within 100 yards, I don’t rattle as loud so that I don’t scare him off.
Be ready! They will come in fast! Having a buck decoy helps convince them also. The Heads Up whitetail buck decoy is a game changer for me.

 

[gjs4]

Barry Wensel, chancy Walters, Aaron warbritton and others make it seem so easy.... I’ve tried and feel I suck per my own ears. Would love to hear more of the foundation words and mechanics of how to do it


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[Coveyleader]

I've always used my voice to call them in. Less junk in the tree. Like you, it's hard comprehend sometimes the amount of junk we/us have in a tree. It's a flipping WT, most often less than 1/3 of mile from the truck on a long day.

Years ago I was walking across a large cut WIHA in KS with a decoy and all the other junk. SInce that day, small pack, the weight is the thermos of tea for those cold AMs.

 

[bjfoxhoven]

I love rattling. I’ve had more success with rattling than any other type of calls. I do blind rattling if I don’t see any deer. I try to hit the horns as hard and loud as I can for 10-20 seconds then wait. Then rattle again, then wait 10-15 minutes. Works best on the ground when you can stomp your feet and rustle leaves.
If you see a deer within 100 yards, I don’t rattle as loud so that I don’t scare him off.
Be ready! They will come in fast! Having a buck decoy helps convince them also. The Heads Up whitetail buck decoy is a game changer for me.

@skinnyindian what time of year and where at i you ou doing this? I’ve had way less success with rattling than grunting. Can’t count how many I’ve grunted in but only rattled in a few (though I plan to do some this year I a sweet bedding area....should be like rattling in south Texas bucks in brush country). My limited success with rattling has been pre-rut, rut time when I found multiple bucks chasing does.

 

[bjfoxhoven]

FWIW. I never whitetail hunt without a grunt tube...,cannot make the sound well enough. Though I’ve never tried to grunt them in with just my mouth. I’ve had way too much success with the grunt call to leave it back home. I would leave many other things home before it. I just have it around my neck and tuck it in my jacket... easily accessible and it is quiet and out of the way in there. I’ve never had luck with doe bleat or snort wheeze..but I don’t do them as much because of that so my data is biased.

 

[coyotecreek]

@skinnyindian what time of year and where at i you ou doing this? I’ve had way less success with rattling than grunting. Can’t count how many I’ve grunted in but only rattled in a few (though I plan to do some this year I a sweet bedding area....should be like rattling in south Texas bucks in brush country). My limited success with rattling has been pre-rut, rut time when I found multiple bucks chasing does.

I’m in Kansas and this is late October through late November, with late October and early November being the best. I shot my biggest buck ever this past year off of the ground at 10 yards. It was November 2. I rattled, grunted, and stomped my feet to sound like a big fight. He couldn’t resist and came in looking, then saw my decoy. He tried to circle down wind, but couldn’t because of how I set up.
I like to grunt while I’m rattling. Make it more real. I use heavy shed antlers that make a lot of sound. I read a really good article on rattling several years ago on bowsite. If I can find it, I’ll post it. I was like you and never had much luck but kept after it and now it’s magic!
A decoy is a big part of it too. The visual confirmation really helps them to commit.

 

[bjfoxhoven]

All my success has been last week of October through November too. One area I hunt we tend to have better luck late November rattling over grunting (not me personally just all my family). I would love to read the article. I’ve kinda set it in my mind I’m going to rattle a buck in this year.... I know many big boys bed in this area and it is always tore up with rubs... no other way to hunt it than get super lucky or call. I could use the river to help funnel them closer to me when rattling when the wind is correct. Now that I think of it, it seems when rattling the “setup” seems so much more important than when grunting. Maybe that is just from my few experiences. To this day one of my best hunts was on a buck I rattled in (didn’t get) to 5 yards.

 

[Btaylor]

Do you have an resources to learn how to voice grunt?

You tube and a smart phone. Lots of videos on deer vocalizations, just listen and try to duplicate while video recording on your phone. Hard to describe but for me it is an inhale of sorts of "uhhh" and "aannn" to get different grunts. For me it is contracting the neck and throat muscles and feels like pulling your adams apple down while barely pulling any air in but engaging the vocal chords to make the stacotto sounds. Sound is forced through nasal passage and/or mouth depending on type and sound of grunt.

Like was mentioned, voice grunting, for me, is not real effective in high winds because it is hard to get the volume up enough to really carry and make good sounds. That said I havent had much luck with a grunt tube in high wind either. Our deer dont like much wind and are much more skittish in high wind when and if they move. I know in other areas it can be almost the opposite where they are more nervous in low to no wind situations.

 

[brettdunn7]

Just grab a grunt tube with a snort wheeze on it and your good to go. Learn the different combos, techniques, cadences, tones whatever they make. They are probably the easiest calls to use and learn IMO.


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[Gliajo11]

A mouth call may over complicate things. I'm also not sure if you would be able to create the depth in town with a mouth call that would produce a quality grunt.